The present invention relates to campers and in particular to anchors used for mounting a camper tent to a vehicle such as a pickup truck. The invention also concerns a method of erecting a tent on a truck.
Conventional pickup trucks generally include a flatbed with sidewalls. The sidewalls often have stake receiving pockets therein. These pockets may be used, for example, to support vertical stakes utilized to retain loads within the truck, when the loads pile higher than the sidewalls of the pickup truck.
Numerous types of camper shells and tent arrangements have been developed for mounting within such pickup trucks. Some of these are collapsible arrangements which are collapsed when the pickup truck is driven from location to location, as for example over a highway, and which are erected at a campsite for use as a camping shelter or the like. Such camper arrangements often utilize a frame which is erected in the bed of the pickup truck.
Numerous methods of attaching a camper frame to the pickup truck frame have been developed. Often these involve the utilization of the stake-holes, either by direct engagement of the camper frame with a stake-hole, or by engagement of the camper frame with an insert which is receivable within the stake-holes or stake receiving pockets.
Conventional methods of attaching a tent frame to the vehicle body suffer numerous disadvantages. For example, often no secure anchoring method is utilized, rather the stakes are simply loosely received within the stake receiving pocket or insert. Thus, the tent would not be securely attached to the truck frame and could be easily lifted by vandals, or the weather, or perhaps by wind forces created while driving the truck a short distance with the camper erected.
In some systems, the tent frame is securely attached to the truck frame, however the method of attachment may require modification in a conventional truck frame such as by the addition of bolted on, or welded on, brackets or the like, or through the drilling of holes for the receipt of bolts or the like. Such methods suffer from being both relatively costly and inefficient, by requiring modifications in the truck frame. These modifications may be undesirable for aesthetic reasons, they may weaken or stress portions of the truck frame or body, and they may require extensive put-up or take-down procedures. Also, such methods might not readily accommodate methods of erecting camper frames which may require minor adjustment in the orientation of portions of the frame to accommodate a canvas-like covering during camper erection.
In some instances, inserts are utilized which are received within the stake receiving pockets and to which tent poles may be attached. Conventional inserts, for utilization with tent poles, generally suffer from having inadequate and inefficient means of actually securing the stake to the stake receiving pocket. Also, such inserts have been somewhat difficult to assemble and operate. Further, conventional inserts have not, generally, provided adequate means to adjust positioning of the tent poles to accommodate different types of tent frames, different types of canvases, or to facilitate erection of the camper.